Tune into a few performance gurus, and you'll be tempting to convince yourself that dozing is a secret weapon: rather than a quick fix following restless night, but a path towards a better memory, better spirits and possibly improved athletic performance. Elite athletes swear by it – as do concert pianists, UFC champions and high-profile executives. However, if you haven’t got a dedicated nap-room or a career that allows frequent naps, can there *honestly* enough benefits to a short sleep for it to be worth the effort? Does there exist a surefire technique to fall asleep fast? Plus, is it possible to truly ensure you’ll wake up feeling refreshed, rather than worse?
Exploring Your Reasons for Napping
“There are three primary motivations for napping among most adults,” explains a professor of circadian rhythm specialist. “One is termed compensatory napping, which is what you do after experiencing a lack of sleep the night before. The second is prophylactic napping, where you are preparing for sleep loss ahead, for instance when working overnight shifts. The third is called “appetitive drive”, which essentially comes down to desire: there is an opportunity to doze in the afternoon, and it's enjoyable to nap.”
The initial step to undertake, so, is to think about your reason for napping. “Napping can be genuinely useful when night sleeping is being disrupted because of factors outside your control – such as, if you’re a parent of a newborn, or you’re recovering from sickness or intense exercise,” states a sleep physiologist. “Yet when you nap because your sleep at night is unstable or poor, that’s often a signal your need for sleep is not as strong as it needs to be. In those cases, daytime sleep can turn into part of the issue, instead of the fix. Use napping for brief periods for short-term problems – the priority must always be a strong and predictable sleep at night.”
The Ideal Nap Length
Therefore that napping shouldn’t be long enough to affect your nighttime sleep, and best shouldn’t take place after about 3pm (depending on what time you retire in the evening). What's a reasonable length? Guidelines are mixed. In one of the most referenced research regarding daytime sleep, experts noted that crew members had up to a 54% increase in attentiveness and a 34% increase in cognitive performance after a 26-minute nap (to be precise, this included a six-minute falling asleep phase). “I recommend using an alarm for 20-30 minutes – the majority fall asleep within 10 minutes,” explains a sleep coach. “There is plenty of recommendations about the optimal amount of minutes, however, that can cause people to feel more worried than anything – and the most counterproductive thing one can do while aiming to fall asleep is to stress over it.”
Should you decide to sleep for longer, avoid the 45-60 minute window that induces sleep grogginess, that disoriented sensation when you wake. “Studies would say it’s better to opt for a lengthier snooze of one to one and a half hours rather than a mid-length nap,” notes the sleep scientist. “45 minutes is enough time to plunge you into a deep sleep stage and you’re more likely to feel sluggish when you wake up – however, if you extend it slightly longer to an hour or 90 minutes, you’re likely to finish a full cycle and will probably wake up feeling more rejuvenated. However, if you're dozing for an hour and a half, it will affect your sleep later that night.”
Finding the Perfect Sleep Space
When it comes to exact methodologies, suggestions are diverse. Certain specialists propose using similar routines one would use to promote quality nighttime sleep: a silent space, a supportive surface and as much darkness as is feasible. Others suggest that you should merely snooze on the sofa in whatever light happens to be around – to avoid sleep inertia and to “protect” your bedroom as the environment you associate with *real* sleep. “Sleep is notoriously difficult to will,” explains a specialist. “Lacking any drowsiness, it is more challenging to get comfortable and practically instruct yourself to go to sleep. There’s got to be some sleep pressure present to initiate sleep initially. For me, it's possible to take a nap in broad daylight and wake up naturally alarm-free, though, what aids a lot of people is to anticipate a moment that they’re naturally slightly tired and then simply ease into sleep.”
It’s worth experimenting, and if options are scarce – such as, if attempting to fit in a quick nap while traveling or in a soundproof office pod – it's acceptable with bringing a few tools. “In my work with professional sportspeople, I recommend that they don’t get used to their own bed for naps, as they’re going to have|they will
